Do fugitives who go on the run ever really get away from the law for good? Evidence suggests not, reports Nick McCarthy.

These are the faces of the Midland fugitives who evaded justice for a total of 15 years.

The crooks on the run included a killer driver, a rampaging gunman, a fraudster and a money launderer with links to the Russian Mafia and the IRA.

The
spotlight was once again shone on fugitives recently after the capture of West Midlands murder suspect John Anslow, who spent 439 days on the run and was finally found in northern Cyprus.

Anslow escaped from a security van in January 2012 close to Hewell Prison, near to Redditch.

He had been on his way to a preliminary hearing at Stafford Crown Court over the murder of Chasetown businessman Richard Deakin.

The sunshine island in the Mediterranean is fast becoming a safe haven for British fugitives.

Kenneth Noye
fled there after stabbing a man to death in a road rage attack on the M25 in 1996, but later moved to Spain from where he was extradited and jailed for life.

UK authorities launched Operation Zygos in September in a bid to track down
fugitives on the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which does not have any extradition treaty with the UK.

Six
people are still wanted by Operation Zygos, which is a link up between the Crimestoppers charity, the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and the Republic of Cyprus.

The
campaign – which did not include an appeal to find John Anslow – has already led to the return of three UK fugitives, including a couple from
Birmingham who had been jailed after spending six years on the run.

Wayne Smith,
aged 38, was found guilty of causing the death of 22-year-old Mohammed Idrees by dangerous driving at Birmingham Crown Court in 2006, but he skipped the country before he could be sentenced.

In
November he was sentenced to nearly eight years for causing death by dangerous driving, perverting the course of justice and going on the run.

His girlfriend, Julie Skelding was convicted of perverting the course of justice and also failing to surrender and was jailed for 22 months.

She
had supplied Smith with an alibi to the hit and run fatal collision on Bordesley Green Road, Alum Rock on the night of Sunday, June 5, 2005.

Smith
fled to northern Cyprus with Skelding while on court bail prior to sentencing, where the couple remained until the ‘Most Wanted’ campaign highlighted the pair and they eventually gave themselves up to authorities.

But Midland fugitives do not always end up in the sunshine.

In 2004, Tony Harlow,
a fugitive Black Country gunman nicknamed the Laughing Cavalier, was found in Coseley after spending 12 months on the run.

Harlow escaped from jail while serving a life sentence after going on a terrifying rampage with a loaded pistol in 1986.

He was dubbed the Laughing Cavalier because of his striking resemblance to the famous painting by Dutch artist Frans Hals.

He
had been on the run for nearly a year after walking out of an open prison in Derbyshire in 2003, and was eventually found after police stormed a house in Coseley.

Harlow
had been involved in an earlier prison escape in 1996 when his father was taken ill with cancer. Harlow’s father died not long after he was recaptured.

Harlow had been jailed for life after launching a shooting spree in Dudley’s Wren’s Nest
estate - when he fired a gun at a neighbour, at the house of a woman he
didn’t like, at a passing car and into a crowded pub over a two day period. Luckily, no one was injured in the incidents, but those he targeted were left terrified.

• A
fugitive fraudster from Handsworth, who was wanted over a £1 million financial scam gave himself up to police in 2008 after spending two years on the run.

Sanjeev Rana
,
34, walked into a Birmingham police station two years after failing to turn up for sentencing in connection with a fraud which netted £1.1 million.

Rana was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to defraud, but failed to turn up for the joint sentencing hearing in October 2006 and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was jailed for five years and ordered to repay £750,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

• Alan Jones,
from Witton, handed himself in to authorities in 2005 after spending four years on the run.

He was eventually jailed for almost three years in 2006 for his role in a £17 million money-laundering scam involving the IRA and the Russian Mafia.

The so-called ‘Superdollar’ scam saw more
than $30 million flood into Europe after counterfeit notes were printed
in North Korea.

Jones helped smuggle millions of fake dollars into the UK from Ireland until he was arrested in 2000, but later went on the run and is believed to have spent a couple of years in
Spain and India before returning to the Midlands.

Before he handed himself in he led a low-key existence, living with travellers and working in a motorway surfacing gang.

RogerCritchell,
Director of Operations for Crimestoppers said: “It is vital that the public continue to give information on fugitives attempting to evade justice abroad.

“These individuals are a threat to the
communities they embed themselves in as they most often remain involved
in criminal activity and therefore are a danger to those around them.

“The co-operation we have received in the past from the public has been extremely positive and we need this to continue.”

Speaking
earlier this year, Soca deputy director Martin Molloy, said: “Fugitives
hiding overseas typically remain part of the criminal world, continuing
to bring harm to communities locally and beyond. Soca are determined to
ensure life on the run is intolerable for them and that they are returned to face justice.”

Anyone with information about fugitives can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or at www.crimestoppers-uk.org
.

John Anslow

• John Anslow
was arrested on suspicion of immigration offences and deported by Turkish Cypriot authorities.

He has since appeared in court via video link charged with conspiring together with ten others to escape lawful custody.

The case was adjourned until June.

• West Midlands Police launched a new ‘Most Wanted’ section on its website last year.

And the online picture library received more than 25,000 hits in the first month of its launch this time last year and 79 people have been arested from the gallery since it was launched.

The current gallery includes Mehsen Barmoni, aged 19, who is wanted for false imprisonment

and wounding and Paul McDonnagh, aged 43, who is wanted for recall to prison.